Dolores Hope, who sidelined her own singing career to help her husband Bob become one of the best-known and most-loved entertainers in America, died Monday in Los Angeles of natural causes.
She was 102.
Bob Hope died in July 2003 at the age of 100.
Dolores helped arrange for many of the USO tours that became one of Bob's signatures, and frequently accompanied him.
She also worked with many of the charities for which he performed, and helped establish the Eisenhower Medical Center that was built in Rancho Mirage, Calif., on land donated by the Hopes.
The former Dolores DeFina was born on May 27, 1909, in the Bronx, to which she often returned as an adult. She was inducted into the Bronx Walk of Fame and a street there is named for her, along with the tree peony collection at the Bronx Botanical Garden.
She launched a nightclub singing career in the early 1930s under the name Dolores Reade. She was singing at the Vogue Club in Manhattan when Hope spotted her.
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We are now up to 4 people being 51 years of age and dead.... This week....
Blue Island park board president dead at 51 years old John Spizzirri, president of the Blue Island Park District board, was found unresponsive at his home Thursday night, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.
Spizzirri, 51, lived in the 2000 block of Market Street, the medical examiner’s office said. His body was brought to the medical examiner’s office at 11:30 p.m. Thursday, and has been released to the family. No autopsy was performed.
A clerk at the Blue Island Park District office said the mood there Friday was somber.
Longtime park commissioner John Murphy was not available for comment Friday, but his wife, Gladys Murphy, said she was “shocked” to learn of Spizzirri’s passing.
“Oh, my God. I’m ready to cry,” she said. “I’ve known him for many years. He was doing a terrific job at the park district. He was very dedicated to making the parks better.”
Arrangements are pending.
Journalist and TV show host Eleanor Mondale, the daughter of former vice president Walter Mondale, has died at age 51. Mondale, who until 2009 hosted a daytime show for WCCO radio in her native Minnesota, died at home today of complications due to brain cancer.
Mondale began her television career at WCCO-TV. She worked for E! Online, ESPN, ESPN2 and Speed Channel. She also worked for a time on CBS News “This Morning.”
It was also announced today that Kara Kennedy, the daughter of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, died last night, also at age 51. Kara Kennedy and Eleanor Mondale were both teenagers when their fathers were involved in presidential politics. Kennedy ran unsuccessfully for the democratic nomination in 1980 against the incumbent Jimmy Carter and VP Walter Mondale. Carter/Mondale would win the nomination but lose to Ronald Reagan. In 1984 Mondale won the democratic nomination for president, but would lose to Reagan in the general election.
